I've got to say that whilst I have no interest in the EOS-M body, I can appreciate that people like me are not Canon's main target audience. My main concern with this launch is the lack of lenses announced with it. My "hoped for" launch would have been:

two bodies: this one and higher end model;

three zooms: the EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM (collapsible would have been nice), an EF-M 55-150mm(ish) f/4-5.6 IS STM and an 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM;

three primes: three fast pancake lenses. I won't specify focal lengths or apertures, as we could all argue over this until the cows come home!

Of course, this would have been living in dreamland! In the real world, we might have hoped for

two bodies (camera companies seem to be more keen on bodies than lenses!)

two of the zooms

one or two primes

In reality, we got one body, one zoom and one prime, not exactly a solid commitment to the system from Canon! This wouldn't be a problem, except that they're the last to the party; we weren't even given a roadmap. What incentive is there to invest into EOS-M when micro-4/3rds is now so well established, Sony are starting to look strong, Fuji are pitching to the enthusiast, and even Samsung have a pretty good lineup. I certainly wouldn't buy into this system based upon EF lens compatability, because we all know they're mostly pretty unsuitable for mirrorless cameras (too big and with poor AF speed). I'm sure that Canon had this in mind when they launched the new EF 18-135mm IS STM and 'shorty-forty', but I don't think they're anywhere near as compelling (for their target audiences) on EOS-M as they are on their native format.

Canon have now shown the hand that many people have been waiting to see before they committed to a system. That hand is pretty weak at the moment; they need to keep up the momentum as the EOS-M system currently risks fading into obscurity once the hype from the launch is over (like Nikon '1' has). If they haven't got anything else (mirrorless) to show at Photokina, there are going to be a lot of people buying into rival systems. If that happens, then Canon had best hope that mirrorless is a fad and not the future, or they will have truly blown their market position.

I would be surprised if they didn't announce more lenses in the next month or so and probably even another body. They'll drip feed this new system over the next few months and hog the limelight for all it's worth. This is just the beginning and Canon will have a mirrorless package to compliment your DSLR and you simply wont be able to resist going out and spending 1500 bucks.

One day, when electronic viewfinders become more pleasant to use than optical viewfinders, DSLRs will go away, like twin-lens reflexes did long time ago.

Until then, I just love to use a DSLR for stills. Who cares about specs?

Yet, the later DSLRs already offer a lot of functions in live view only, or are more usable in live view: video, under water, on tripod, or in the hands of people who are not used to OVF.There, with the optical view finder off, the DSLRs loose their advantage.

After watching the Tech Radar video I think the AF performance of this "touch me to shoot" function cannot compete.It took nearly 1 second to grab focus while this is achieved on e.g. a GF3 in max. 2 tenth of a second.

I think the review was so boring it even bored the camera thats why it was so slow off the mark

canon rumors FORUM

This costs more than a 650d so why would somebody buy it over the 650d other than size of which there seems to be a large choice out there of smaller cameras that are more competitively priced. A lot of posts talk about the glass being an important part of picture quality so 650d scores there, it also has a swivelling screen and a built in flash so scores there. I read that it has a 31 point AF system which could be a big advantage but why wouldn't Canon have put that in the 650d if it is the same sensor - I guess that will be in the 70d?

So with the mount for EF lenses does the focal length multiplier stay at 1.6? Or is it going to be more than that? My FD to EF converter has a multiplier of 1.25. Kills the wide angle end...

Should be 1.6 (so that the 22mm would be an effective 35mm).

I'd expect that there would be a third party available adapter for FD (and pretty much every other mount) very soon, so you could skip FD to EF. Stacking two adapters doesn't seem like the right solution here.

Do the average users really need over 18MP?remember the 1100D is still only 12MP so for these users this is a considerable jump. Plus 18MP means consumers can get away with relatively small capacity SD cards. You start bumping that up to 22,24 or heaven forbid 36MP and the large file sizes and future storage issues give average consumers a reason to buy the other model.

You're justifying and apologizing for a failure of Canon technology. Cannon is behind in sensor technology. they need to catch up.

Does anyone know if flange distance affects lens design/quality? I'm wondering if there might ever be EF-M lenses better than their EF/EF-S equivalents.

The flange distance itself doesn't affect lens design/quality too much - it is the minimum possible distance between image (here sensor) plane and the last optical element.

The smaller the last-optical-element-to-image-plane distance the higher the flexibility to place optical elements at their optimum position. The EF-M-mount/CSC-concept will open a lot of options for totally new lens designs which will - hopefully - increase the overall (technical) quality of the images created with these lenses.

Canon-F1

Does anyone know if flange distance affects lens design/quality? I'm wondering if there might ever be EF-M lenses better than their EF/EF-S equivalents.

The flange distance itself doesn't affect lens design/quality too much - it is the minimum possible distance between image (here sensor) plane and the last optical element.

The smaller the last-optical-element-to-image-plane distance the higher the flexibility to place optical elements at their optimum position. The EF-M-mount/CSC-concept will open a lot of options for totally new lens designs which will - hopefully - increase the overall (technical) quality of the images created with these lenses.

it IS more difficult to get good borders when the lens is very close to the sensor.that´s why leica needed a special sensor with mircolenses for the M9.

Do the average users really need over 18MP?remember the 1100D is still only 12MP so for these users this is a considerable jump. Plus 18MP means consumers can get away with relatively small capacity SD cards. You start bumping that up to 22,24 or heaven forbid 36MP and the large file sizes and future storage issues give average consumers a reason to buy the other model.

At 18MP, you already need fairly decent glass to get a sharp image. While the difference between 18MP and 24MP is academic, a 36MP APS-C sensor would need glass, the cost of which, entry level users could not justify. Besides, how many 24x36" prints do most users make? - This isn't a camera designed to produce professional results. I think a 18MP sensor is more than fit for purpose. If you need higher IQ, then rather go full frame.

Not targeting you specifically, but in camera talk people often talk about IQ alongside mp. MP has bearing over one thing only: maximum output size. It by itself has little or nothing to do with image quality. That is where the obsession with mp size has come from because people confuse resolution for quality.

Remember these are being aimed at people that are coming from Phones as their primary source of camera.

If it is no more versatile than a camera phone than what is the point.

How can you say an interchangeable lens camera is no more versatile than a camera phone that cannot change lenses? Can you add an external flash to a camera phone? I have a droid X and can tell you it takes lousy photos and forget it if they move.

Some of the comments here are of no surprises since at least some of the folks here are of the mindset that nothing less than a 5D III is even capable of taking pictures, so something along the lines of a mirrorless camera is nothing more than a paperweight in their minds.